In a town called Hartford, an Autobot named Roadburn was parked on a street near a house occupied by a family of six people, and he scanned the area, getting a layout of the entire town. "Bigger than Highmore, but very homey," Roadburn thought to himself. He hadn't been to this town before in his life, but he didn't come to the town for sight-seeing; he came looking for a friend.

Roadburn actually came from Cybertron, a planet that was his home since he was created, but had to leave for two reasons: It was destroyed by war, and he had to find a teammate who abandoned his team in a deadly ambush at Nova Cronum. Roadburn survived the ambush and was pronounced an Autobot Survivor, but he didn't want that, saying he wanted to find another Autobot who fled because he was a neutral. Being upon one of the first travelers who volunteered, Roadburn headed out into the stars with hopes of finding his teamated and friend.

Landing on Earth in the year 2004, Roadburn took the form of a 1986 Ford F150 to blend in, but was taken to a small town in South Dakota, miles away from his landing spot near the state's border. Roadburn soon got sold to a male human who worked out in the country side, and was taken excellent care of through the years, even if his vehicle form "aged" from the paint "peeling" and "rust forming." Roadburn was soon put up for sale at an auction after the human bought a newer pick-up truck, but he didn't care too much. It only took a while before he was sold to a man named Loren, who lived in Highmore, and was taken home after the auction, but was surprised to see that Loren owned a more recent pick-up truck. "Why would he get me when he has a pick-up already?" Roadburn wondered as he was parked across the street from Loren's home. After Loren was inside, Roadburn hacked into the man's phone call and found out why he was bought in the first place: Loren wanted to give him to his grandson. Roadburn could fathom that, and a few days later at night, the grandson came with his family.

Roadburn studied the family as they got out of the Buick LeSabre one by one, seeing that there was only one male out of the five of them. "That must be my actual new owner," Roadburn thought, and studied the females to get who was his mom and who were his sisters. The oldest sister out of them looked at Roadburn, observing him from the front and side, and Roadburn observed her closely, finding an interest of hers interesting by scanning her cell phone contents. "She knows about my race? Probably fictional to her." Roadburn said, then watched the girl as she started to help her family with the suitcases.

The next day when the whole family was out at garage sales, Roadburn kept a clip-notes on the kids, seeing how they each differed from one another in personality. "The boy seems very interested in cars, police, and other things boys like, and the two younger ones like the typical girl interests, but the oldest girl looks to be the odd one out." Roadburn said, then heard the boy come back with his grandpa, then Roadburn was driven to a sale in town where the boy's mother and sisters were. "Ooh! We're loading my new bed into the back of the new pick-up," the oldest sister said, and the bed was loaded in the trunk. Roadburn soon felt like a connection was starting to sprout when she sat in him, feeling a small spark between them. "Hm, I wonder if Wildfrost had this feeling with a human?" Roadburn wondered, but put is aside as Andrea got out of him to spend time with her family, and knowing that he needed to keep his war a secret from her.

On the day they were taking their new pick-up home, sixteen-year-old Andrea got her things together to go back home for the school week. Andrea put her belongings in the 1986 Ford F150 that her grandfather gave to her brother, Winston, then she and he left with their mother and two younger sisters after loading up her new bed and saying goodbye to their grandparents. The plan with the Ford F150 originally was to get everything necessary established first before bringing it home, but that changed when Andrea's bed was bought. During the ride home, Andrea kept herself busy by listening to music on her IPod Shuffle and MP3 player, since she didn't bring a journal to write in or read her stories in, and watched traffic get passed or drive by. The windows were down as well since the AC wasn't working yet, and Andrea had a bottle of Cherry Coca-Cola in her lap to keep her from getting thirsty.

After getting home, Andrea, Winston, and their parents unloaded the bed and moved it into Andrea's room after getting the Twin sized bed moved to the basement where the other matching Twin bed for it was, then helped unpack from the trip. After getting settled down, Andrea grabbed some of her Transformers and a HeroFactory, and snapped up pictures of them doing different actions that revolved around the idea of the new bed.

Andrea was a fan of Transformers, but had only seen about three Transformers series on the internet and the live-action movies on DVD. Andrea first saw Transformers: Cybertron in third grade, but didn't take much interest in it, then saw the first live-action movie in 2009 on a trip to Colorado, getting a certain curiosity to it. After returning home from the trip, she did some research on the first movie, hooking her on Transformers for good, and making her get the first movie during a break on a Drivers Ed break with her own money she had saved up. Later in 2010, Andrea became a new member on a website called Transformer World 2005, where she was invited to join a Ladies Group on the site ten days after becoming a member. Andrea called herself AndreaPrime101 (AP101) on the site, and started to get used to things there.

AP101 checked TFW2005 frequently as she slowly started a collection in a price range that was suitable for the amount she had, seeing what there was to talk about, what had to be seen, and posting her own Transformers Fan Fiction. The girl soon learned about Transformers: Dark of the Moon and Transformers: Prime, aiming to see them when they premiered, but had to watch the new TV series on the internet again since her cable didn't list The HUB on TV Guide, and had to wait until the DVD came out. AP101 applied for a job at her grocery store to help raise money to get more Transformers for her collection and get the DVD, getting the position of Checker there and raising enough to get two more Transformers, a Transformers Dog-Tag, and the DOTM DVD in one shopping trip in Sioux Falls.

When AP101 learned that her grandfather got Winston a new pick-up, she was both happy and concerned; happy about her brother getting a new vehicle, and concerned about the fact it'll have to go through some check ups and maybe even some new upgrades and get a new paint-job to make it not so old. What she didn't think about was that the problems were really small skits from a real-life Transformer and that he wasn't as old as she thought.

Things were buzzing at his owners school in the morning with almost every student and staff member wearing blue and white clothes or a shirt that supported the school. "Wonder what all the buzz is anyway?" Roadburn asked when everyone was inside, then decided to dispatch Spy Shot 6, a small digital camera Transformer who was his mini partner and spy. "What do you need me for?" Spy Shot asked. "I need you to see what our human friends are doing right now, and see why the school is buzzing with school pride." Roadburn said. "Sure thing!" Spy Shot said, then got out of Roadburn and ran into the school after getting across the parking lot.

Inside the school, students were doing what they wanted to do, and some students were twirling flags around. "Now I wonder what the buzz is." Spy Shot said, then spotted Andrea in a black jacket walking his way with a rolled up poster in her hands, then jumped onto her jeans and rode along to her destination. Andrea enter the councilor's room, hoping her favorite councilor, Mrs. Pliska, was in the room, and to her relief, she was. "Hi Mrs. Pliska! I have my Homecoming poster for the SADD float done. It took me 'til after midnight, but it's done." Andrea said, showing the teacher the Busou Shinki-inspired poster. "Wow! That's great!" Mrs. Pliska said. "Homecoming? So that's what the buzz is about?" Spy Shot asked himself as Andrea and Mrs. Pliska talked to each other, then Andrea had to get going again, this time, heading for the auditorium. When she got to a backstage hallway, Spy Shot got off of Andrea's jeans and hid by her Sky Force bag, seeing multiple people performing different moves. "Wonder why these people are back here performing routines." Spy Shot said, then crept around to see, finding spread sheets taped to the walls showing the order of performances. "'Mock Rock.' A musical performance show?" Spy Shot wondered, then heard everyone, including Andrea, leave for the stage.

Spy Shot raced to the back of the auditorium and into the sound booth, creeping past the students that were in there and getting to the spotlights at the top to get a good view of the show. "Spy Shot? Any reports?" Roadburn asked. "The buzz is about Homecoming, and one of our human friends is performing in something called Mock Rock." Spy Shot said. "Oh yeah. I can't believe I forgot about that!" Roadburn said. "What are you? 90 human years?" Spy Shot asked. "You know I'm most likely to relate to a 20-year-old human." Roadburn said. "Show's about to start. Deeds later." Spy Shot said, and Roadburn rolled his optics. Spy Shot watched the Mock Rock performances until Andrea was third to go on, first seeing "Lazy Song" and a parody of one of the Target commercials that dealt with the dude who sang a denim song. Spy Shot watched closer, seeing the little mess up act the guy in the sound booth made Andrea do, and giggling to the small skit she did until a video popped up on the screen that was down for her performance.

The students were already watching Andrea with anticipation, making her a little nervous, but followed the choreography she and two other friends came up with, and soon she was smiling through the performance as the students were cheering and swaying their arms to her performance, the most cheering coming from her normal-to-rocker transformation she planned to go along with the music video of the song she was dancing to. After the performance, everyone was clapping and cheering, making Andrea proud of her performance, then joined the crowd later after her little adrenaline rush was somewhat gone.

Later while getting ready for the parade, Spy Shot told Roadburn about Andrea's performance and the standing ovation that it was given. "Wait, she performed that by herself while the other performances were in groups? She's got a manifold!" Roadburn said. "Or as the humans would say, 'She's got guts!'" Spy Shot said. "If she's that great, why can't she show that more often? As far as I've heard about her, she's shy about showing people what she can do." Roadburn said. "Maybe it's just her." Spy Shot said with a shrug. Winston soon got to Roadburn, making Spy Shot hide under the seat, then Roadburn was taken to a place with both water and dirt, then the Autobot was covered in hand-made mud for their float, which everyone on it had fun on. Roadburn was having fun too, until he started picking up a strange signal from somewhere along the parade route, but ignored it and let Winston drive him.

Elsewhere in Hartford that day, a Decepticon named Knockout was driving around in his custom Audi R8 V12 TDI form with metallic dark red paint with black vinyl as a paint job, dark windows, and yellow rims, looking for a signal he had been picking up for the last two weeks. Knockout wasn't much for patrolling around to look for a signal, liking the illegal human sport of street racing, but this signal had aroused his interest because it was Cybertronian. When he first started to get the signal, he was on the road on a mission to find his leader, Megatron, under Starscream's command, and followed it to Hartford until he lost the signal. When he started getting the signal for a second time, Knockout pinpointed it at a school; unfortunately, there were multiple cars and people in the parking lot at the time and left the signal alone. A third time lead Knockout to a race track just outside of Hartford called the "I-90 Speedway" and entered the area, but found more than one vehicle and people again, and left to get the signal later.

Today, he was getting the signal again, but he couldn't find it this time, and parked in front of a senior center to see if he could pinpoint the signal's location. "Knockout, Starscream's been looking for you again. Where are you?" a fellow Decepticon named Breakdown asked, contacting Knockout. "I'm in a small town looking for a signal I've been picking up for the last two weeks since I entered this state." Knockout said. "Again? You've lost the signal three times already, give it up." Breakdown said. "I'll give it up if I fail to find the signal a fourth time, alright? And besides, I'm not going anywhere anyway because humans are blocking my way out." Knockout said as humans were gathering around. "Why are humans blocking your way?" Breakdown asked. "Ready for the parade to start, sweetie?" one human asked a smaller human, with the smaller human saying, "Yeah, mommy!" "Obviously for a parade of some sort." Knockout said. "Ha! Maybe you'll learn a lesson when you get human sweets thrown at you!" Breakdown said. "At least human sweets don't scratch the paint." Knockout said with a growl.

Knockout and the gathered humans waited until the parade got to their area, with the signal slowly coming toward him. "Breakdown, I'm getting the signal, and its coming toward my area." Knockout said. "The signal's coming to you? It must be part of the parade then." Breakdown said. "We'll see," Knockout said. Near the end of the parade, the signal was at it's strongest, coming from a mud-covered, rusty brown pick-up with high school students in and on it. "Well, it looks like I found the signal, from a pick-up truck with a bad paint job." Knockout said. "Really? That's a first." Breakdown said. Knockout ignored that, then heard one of the humans on the pick-up do a very small rap. "Who's gonna win? The Trojans that's who! We gonna make those tigers have no clue! The Trojans are gonna win, we'll put it at that, 'cause we're the underdogs while they're just the kitty-cats," the human rapped, and Knockout said to himself, "That human has some rapping skills."

After the humans were out of his way, Knockout tracked down the brown pick-up back to the school, where he spotted the same human who did the rap with another human, and he saw the pick-up door open by itself and bump the first human next to the other human. "What was that?" the second human asked. "I don't know, the door must've opened," the first human said, and shut the door. "Hm... so that pick-up is the source of the signal, and it turns out he's friendly with humans." Knockout said, then told Breakdown, "Breakdown, I've found an Autobot." "An Autobot? Starscream would be pleased to hear that if it was alone." Breakdown said. "He is alone when it comes to other Autobots, but he's not alone when it comes to humans." Knockout said. "Knockout! Where are you?!" Starscream demanded, getting in on the conversation. "Commander Starscream, I've found an Autobot, and he's protecting a human female." Knockout said. "It is Lord, Knockout, and find out more information about the Autobot and his little human." Starscream said. "Yes, my Lord," Knockout said, and started to hunt down the information necessary to Roadburn and Andrea.

On the weekend after Homecoming, Roadburn was taking a stasis nap near Andrea's home as he now usually did on the weekends when the same signal woke him right out of his nap. Roadburn looked around, pinpointing the signal to an Audi that was on the street and parked right across from Andrea's house. "Oh slag! A Decepticon!" Roadburn thought, and planned to flush Knockout out for what he was, but was stopped when Andrea's dog started to bark and growl in the front lawn. Andrea was doing her homework in her room when she heard the Welsh-Corgi-English-Bulldog barking and growling, and walked to the porch since she was home alone. Once outside, Andrea said, "Lady!" getting her dog's attention, then Lady looked back at Knockout and barked. Andrea grabbed Lady's chain and pulled it toward her, making Lady run up to the door, and the teenager let the dog off her chain so Lady could run to her kennel.

Andrea was about to go back inside to get back to her Homework when Knockout triggered his car alarms, making the girl cover her ears. "Ow!" Andrea yelled out, her ears sensitive to the high frequency, then when Knockout shut the alarm off, Andrea stormed up to the Decepticon angrily and said, "Hey! Keep your alarms off, you jerk!" Knockout didn't like being called a jerk, then Andrea turned to go back to her house when Knockout triggered the alarms again. "EEK!" Andrea yelled out again, covering her ears, then after Knockout shut them off again, Andrea turned and kicked Knockout's rim. "Maybe that'll teach you something!" Andrea said, then turned and got across the street when she heard transforming. Transforming? Andrea looked back to find that Knockout wasn't a car, but a Transformer, and recognized him right off the bat by looking at his chest and head. "Oh crap! I just kicked Knockout!" Andrea told herself. "You kicked my rim, I'll kick you if you don't provide me with answers to my questions." Knockout said, taking two steps toward her.

Andrea backed away a little, stopping as Knockout knelt down to her eye level. "Is your username on Transformer World 2005 'AndreaPrime101'?" Knockout asked. Andrea was peeved when Knockout pronounced her username's number as "one hundred and one" and said to him, "First of all, Mr. Drama-King-Over-Paintjobs, it's pronounced 'AndreaPrime-one-o-one,' not 'one hundred and one' and not 'one hundred one.'" "I'll take that as a yes, and I take it that you know a lot about us 'Transformers,' am I correct?" Knockout asked. "Uh..." Andrea said. "Well, do you?" Knockout asked. "I have some knowledge," Andrea said. "Then tell me where Megatron and the AllSpark are." Knockout said. "That I don't know, and if I did, I wouldn't tell someone like you!" Andrea said. Knockout grabbed Andrea by the waist and held her in his hand as he got to his feet, the girl squirming and kicking to be let go. "Let me go!" Andrea shouted. "Not until you tell me where Megatron and the AllSpark are." Knockout said. "I told you! I don't know!" Andrea said. "Then I'll have to terminate you right now," Knockout said, then got a circular saw out and started to inch it toward her, making her scream.

"That's not how you treat a female, Knockout!" Roadburn shouted, then transformed and grabbed the saw arm, pulling it away from Andrea before the sharp edge could even touch her. "Roadburn!" Knockout said, then Roadburn wrestled Andrea out of Knockout's grip and kneed the Decepticon in the stomach, then kicked him down to the ground. Andrea couldn't believe what she was seeing as Roadburn put her down on her lawn, and the girl scrambled out of Roadburn's hand shaking. "Don't worry, I'm here to protect you." Roadburn said. Andrea looked at Roadburn, finding an Autobot symbol on his forehead, then nodded at him before Knockout attacked him. Andrea got near the 1990's GMC Sierra her family had to stay away from the fighting as much as possible, then when Knockout temporarily grounded Roadburn, she hid under the GMC in the shadows so it would be hard for Knockout to find her and kill her. "I know you're still out here, kid, so come out so you can have a swift and painless end!" Knockout said. Roadburn got back to his feet and knocked Knockout to the ground and kicked him in front of a tan house next door to Andrea's house, then Andrea crawled out from under the GMC and saw Roadburn transform into her brother's Ford F150. "Get in! Hurry!" Roadburn said, opening the drivers side door, and Andrea didn't hesitate to jump in as Knockout started to get back up. Roadburn slammed the door behind her, strapped her in a seatbelt, and peeled out of the street with Knockout following in his Audi form. "What the slag did I just get into?!" Andrea thought as the chase was on.